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Friday, July 1, 2016

The Jackalope: Creative collaboration.

Creative CollaborationOr an idea shared: different artists, different mediums

The plan was hatched after a festival, to create and collaborate all new work for an upcoming show. The players? Jane Star Weils - fantasy and mythic painter and Jenny Davies-Reazor - fantasy and mythic sculptor/jeweler. Two friends, two artists, two redheads. What could go wrong?

I suggested a jackalope. While most commonly associated with folklore of the Wild West, there are horned hares that appear in illuminated manuscripts as far back as Ancient Persia and Medieval Europe. (Further reading on the jackalope here)

So I headed to the studio and started to sculpt... Originally I planned to do 2 one-of-a-kind tiles... but the Facebook response was so popular that I cast the tile. I can now press jackalope tiles to my heart's content.

Sculpting from my reference photo

SO many glaze possibilities!

Jane and I decided to do this collaboration because we were sharing a space and vending together at the uniquely magical New York Faerie Festival in Ouaquagua, NY. We had special approval from the organizers as sharing usually is discouraged. Our themes of mythic inspiration, gods and goddesses, totem animals and symbolic icons are shared from paint to clay, from colored pencil to polymer. Here we are set up overlooking a babbling brook - I kid you not!

Our home away from home - Jane on the left and yours truly on the right.

Our side "yard" and natural installation/altar

While we did not sell out of jackalope items - it was great fun! I adore Jane's work and was thrilled to have permission to do this - use her images, etc. I think she also enjoyed seeing her creation come to life in beads, and 3d. I have to state here that I used her image with her express permission - and thats the only way I could have done this. Sure, there are other jackalope images I could have referenced... but that wasn't the point here. It was a motivating, inspiring challenge, shared marketing and the like. (Other artists friends had their jackalopes represented as well - in leather masks... sorry no pictures though...)

Jackalope in situ

The photocopied images transferred to the polymer with a greenish cast that I thought was perfect. I did 2 pieces but tried to kept the colors a bit more neutral to appeal to a wider audience.

Image transfer on polymer with beaded bezel

I would love to hear what you think! What is your favorite mythical animal? Have you ever collaborated with another artist?